What's on Your Menu Bar?

[Vincent Ferrari]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1233509768.usr18053.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>Every computer user, Mac or Windows, has a certain amount of stuff in their menu bar or tray that makes them cringe when they see it all.&nbsp; Mine is shown above with each icon explained below (from left to right):</p><p><em>Mailplane: My G-Mail client.</em></p><p><em>Dropbox: Essential file syncing utility.</em></p><p><em>Skitch: Best screen capture util on earth.</em></p><p><em>QuickSilver: If you aren't at least using it to watch apps, you're really missing out.</em></p><p><em>TextExpander: I mainly use it to fill in my bio on feature articles here!</em></p><p><em>Drobo Dashboard: Health status of my Drobo.</em></p><p><em>Evernote: Note and file syncing.</em></p><p><em>Logmein: I don't know why I have this installed on my MBP since I'm rarely without it, but so be it.</em></p><p><em>iSync: The only thing I really use MobileMe for.</em></p><p><em>SoundSource: Let's me set my recording inputs and outputs really easily.</em></p><p><em>Displays: Just the Displays System Preference.</em></p><p><em>Time Machine: Wouldn't have a Mac without it.&nbsp; Time Machine goes straight to my Drobo.</em></p><p><em>Bluetooth: Connects up my keyboard and Mighty Mouse</em></p><p><em>Airport: WiFi Status</em></p><p><em>Sound Volume: Obvious.</em></p><p><em>Clock: More obvious.</em></p><p><em>Spotlight: Yep, I use the hell out of it.&nbsp; I don't know why people hate it so much.</em></p><p>Okay.&nbsp; Now it's your turn.&nbsp; Get into the discussion and share your cluttered overfilled overextended menu bar with the rest of us.&nbsp; Maybe we'll all learn about some great new app or utility from you!</p>

[crimsonsky]

Mine is relatively uncluttered.

1. Soho Notes search
2. Meteo weather - I have mine set to show up to 5 days forecast for 3 cities
3. Spaces (not sure why I have it there as I seldom use it)
4. Mobile Me Sync
5. Time Machine
6. Bluetooth (mouse and keyboard on my Intel Mini)
7. Airport (turned off on my Intel Mini since I use a direct ethernet connection)

And the normal Volume, date and Spotlight (which I use constantly including as a calculator).

I don't use the Evernote Clipper that often so I don't keep it active in my menu bar.

[crimsonsky]

Wow, Vince. Dropbox looks really great. I've just downloaded it and going to give it a whirl. This really addresses the file sync issue that Mobile Me doesn't really address at all (I find using the iDisk still very slow and not particularly convenient).

[Vincent Ferrari]

Wow, Vince. Dropbox looks really great. I've just downloaded it and going to give it a whirl. This really addresses the file sync issue that Mobile Me doesn't really address at all (I find using the iDisk still very slow and not particularly convenient).

If I didn't have DropBox, I could not function. I swear nothing does what it does better than it does it. And it's free! I haven't hit the space limitation yet, but if I did I'd pay for it without a thought.

[doogald]

Mine:

- OpenDNS updater - updates my OpenDNS account with my router's public IP address if it changes
- Dropbox (I should note that I just upgraded to 0.6.434 last week because every time Dropbox was uploading it was killing network performance on my Mac for both upload and download. This version fixes that for me.)
- Spanning Sync (syncs calendars and contacts with Google; those sync with my WM phone)
- Spaces (I also do not know why I have it there, as I always just hotkey the one time a month or so that I use Spaces)
- iSync
- Keychain access lock (I have my keychains set to lock when the computer sleeps)
- Time Machine
- Bluetooth (which I rarely use)
- Airport
- Speaker volume
- Battery meter
- Date and time
- Fastswitch login user short name
- Spotlight

I also use Evernote but I disabled the icon - I just hotkey when I want to grab something.

If somebody wants to license Spanning Sync, let me know; I'll give you a code that saves you $5 (and, full disclosure, gets me $5 as well.)

I've also used SugarSync but it co$t$ and I think I like Dropbox more.

[crimsonsky]

- Spanning Sync (syncs calendars and contacts with Google; those sync with my WM phone)


Is Google Sync not available for Macs? I use it on my Blackberry and work PC. Don't really have a need to synchronise my work contacts and calendar with my personally owned Macs, so I've never looked to even see if Google Sync is available for Macs.

[doogald]

There are some limitations to what will and will not sync with Google and Address Book and CalDAV. They have a FAQ that explains what theirs does that is better.

http://spanningsync.com/faq.html

I've heard that BusySync is excellent, by the way, but I have been using SpanningSync for a couple of years now and it's worked perfectly for me (though I just started contact syncing a couple of months ago.)

[Macguy59]

The usual suspects for me

Meteo
MM sync
TM
BT
Wireless
Bat stat
Date-Time
Spotlight


iDisk sync works for me. The only folder I really want to keep in sync among all of my Macs is the "My Documents" folder. So I created an iDisk folder of the same name and moved all the contents of the existing folder to it. Once I was confident the folder was being synced on a continual basis, I renamed and moved the original folder and removed it from the Finder sidebar (under 'Places'). I replaced it with the iDisk version. Viola'

[TopDog]

Not too much interesting I would guess..

http://img.skitch.com/20090203-ekwbcm27uctgke655pdjbqgxac.preview.jpg (http://skitch.com/topdog/bdmrc/mymenubar)
Click for full size (http://skitch.com/topdog/bdmrc/mymenubar) - Uploaded with plasq (http://plasq.com)'s Skitch (http://skitch.com)

Skitch - (mentioned before... great tool!)
Skype - (Instant Messaging, voice and video)
Salling Clicker - (using my mobile as a remote for the Mac)
Gmail Notifier - (I've actually stopped using Mail.app, Gmail rocks)
MainMenu - (clean up and quickfix tool for us that don't keep the Mac on at night)
iStat - (shows CPU graph's, diskspace and so on...)

...then the regular built in stuff like monitor, bluettooth, WiFi and so on...

[doogald]

- Dropbox (I should note that I just upgraded to 0.6.434 last week because every time Dropbox was uploading it was killing network performance on my Mac for both upload and download. This version fixes that for me.)

I've also used SugarSync but it co$t$ and I think I like Dropbox more.

Never mind - the same thing happened again yesterday with Dropbox. I've dropped and I am back to SugarSync and that is working just fine.

The same strange behavior happens with Microsoft Live Mesh, too.